Storm Brand Elementalist Build Guide (PoE Betrayal 3.5)

Introduction

Storm Brand is an entirely new skill, released for the launch of the current league, Patch 3.5 Betrayal. While all of the recently introduced Brand skills are well suited to Betrayal’s league-specific mechanics, Storm Brand is perhaps the strongest candidate among them overall. This build is a perfect choice for this league, utilizing a great “do-all” style skill that excels at clearing, boss-killing, and surviving.

Build Assessment

Pros

+ Fantastic clear speed+ Great boss killing potential + Deals with the Immortal Syndicate with ease+ Extremely formidable defensive capabilities + Great league starter+ Plenty of investments to make throughout the league+ Accessible for all levels of player+ Excellent “all-rounder”; great for Exiles that want one character to work on

Cons

Playstyle

Storm Brand is a skill that can clear extremely quickly and safely, and feels vaguely similar to a self-cast Arc build, albeit with a ton of additional advantages. For example, during early gearing progression, tougher opponents can be easily dealt with by attaching your brands before retreating to a safe distance. This style of guerrilla play is especially beneficial versus the Immortal Syndicate, some of which can be quite lethal to a mid-geared Exile first approaching Elder maps.

General mapping gameplay matches the style of other fast-clearing spells, with much of the focus being on the correct utilization of movement skills. Storm Brand itself will typically deal with all standard packs, including Rare enemies, in only a single cast. This allows for a greater focus on speed and positioning, which allows for superlative efficiency in clear and a really entertaining and “zippy” playstyle.

Passive Skill Tree

This is our recommended tree for this build. As you may notice, it has many similarities to other popular Elementalist builds, such as our Triple Herald Blade Vortex Elementalist, utilizing the newly introduced Brand notables to specialize our damage. Stacking Life, Mind Over Matter, and Phase Acrobatics grants us three primary layers of defense that even the toughest bosses will struggle to completely penetrate. While this build is not invincible, nor a “facetank the world” build, there are few enemies that can one-shot it without leaving room or time for counterplay.

If it is early in the league, or currency is tight, save some of the Jewel sockets for a last layer of icing on the cake once you are in the 90s. You will want to invest into Acrobatics fairly early on, as it greatly eases the leveling process and removes much of the potential of troublesome stun-chains.

Gem Links

Here are our recommended links for your final end-game build. Storm Brand is our primary skill for clearing, and should also be kept active on single targets at all times. We also use Lightning Spire Trap as a secondary skill to boost our single target damage without the need for a second 6-Link.

Lightning Spire Trap 4-Link

This link will help bolster your single target damage immensely early on, although it is not entirely necessary once strong end-game gear is required. Since there are not a lot of other competitive options, we recommend using this link even with strong gear, as it eases the difficulty of many bosses and allows you to lay down a lot of damage in advance (Izaro, for example).

This can be easily turned into a pseudo 5-Link by obtaining a pair of Shaped gloves that have the Trap and Mine Damage Support suffix. This can be further upgraded to a pseudo 6-Link by additionally obtaining the Faster Casting Support suffix, although finding a pair of gloves with both and a good Life roll can be somewhat of an investment.

Flame Dash is often used in our builds that utilize either Whirling Blades or Shield Charge as the primary mobility skill, due to their severe limitations in certain environments, such as the Labyrinth along with many map tilesets (Shrine, for example).

Herald of Thunder 3-Link

Herald of Thunder is a nice damage boost, and applies curses to enemies at range, further boosting our clear speed.

Arcane Surge 3-Link

Ascendancy, Bandits, and Pantheon

Ascendancy

1. Shaper of Desolation2. Beacon of Ruin3. Pendulum of Destruction4. Mastermind of Discord

Additional Information

Elementalist is the ideal Ascendancy choice for this build, as it compliments ailment builds very well and offers a significant amount of additional damage andquality of life.

The actual order of Ascendancy is not of particular importance for this build, as all four nodes offer strong but varied benefits that can be altered based on preference or available leveling gear. Having access to a Tabula Rasa early on, for example, greatly increases the effectiveness of Beacon of Ruin, due to the additional cold gems you will be using.

Shaper of Desolation is the first node we recommend taking, offering a consistent benefit through ailment application. While not a spectacular node in and of itself, it is a noticeable power increase and, more important, unlocks the way forward to Beacon of Ruin.

Beacon of Ruin is a superb Ascendancy node for our build, empowering our ailments. While this is certainly a welcome damage injection, it is also a healthy increase to our defense potential via the spreading of chill and freeze effects. The spreading of our Freeze and Shock effects, in particular, is immensely valuable.

Pendulum of Destruction grants a cycling buff, alternating between increased Area of Effect and increased Elemental Damage, both of which are consistent increases to clear speed and damage.

Mastermind of Discord grants 25% penetration on virtually all of our damage output, a very valuable addition when facing bosses, in particular. The reduced Mana reservation is a nice bonus, allowing for a larger unreserved Mana pool to act as a buffer for Mind Over Matter.

Deal With the Bandits Reward

You should kill all three bandits for the Passive Points it provides. Alira is an alternative choice, which can be extremely valuable for league-starters or solo-self found characters, mainly due to the large resistance bonuses it provides. Once end-game is achieved, and proper gear acquired, however, it is recommended to shift to the 2 Passive Points.

Pantheon

As with many builds, Pantheon choices are rather flexible and can be adjusted to suit the situation and personal preference.

Major Gods

Soul of Arakaali is a great all around choice in Betrayal, especially when fully upgraded.

Soul of Lunaris is a good choice for general clearing and mapping, offering a stable all-round damage intake reduction.

Soul of Solaris remains a great choice for general bossing when fully upgraded.

Minor Gods

Soul of Shakari is a good all purpose choice, particularlywith the Incursion league being added as a permanent fixture. The upgrade, granting Poison immunity, is particularly good and removes a map affix from any sort of relevance entirely.

Soul of Tukohama is a good choice for certain bosses, such as Uber Elder.

Soul of Ralakesh is a good choice for situations where you face lethal bleeds, such as Uber Atziri.

Soul of Gruthkul is a good choice for general mapping if you feel you need the additional Physical reduction, and well paired with Lunaris.

Gear, Jewels, and Flasks

Some example gear used by our character has been included for reference. It is by no means the best available options, however, it is more than enough to reach Level 100 or farm Uber Elder. The sum cost of all the gear for our build was approximately 180 Chaos Orbs.

Armor

Chest

Carcass Jack is our go-to Unique chest, providing everything we could need. Extra Area of Effect and Damage, Life, Resists, solid defenses, and of course, Extra Gore. This is the best overall and readily available choice for mapping, leveling, and damage. Inpulsa's Broken Heart, while seemingly a tempting option, does not offer the same damage and clearing potential, as the explosions can occasionally disrupt your brand flickering, and lacks the area of effect bonus of the Carcass Jack.

Tabula Rasa is a perfectly viable option and should be preferred over a 5L Rare or Carcass Jack, particularly if Beacon of Ruin is already unlocked. Loreweave is a consideration for certain bosses, however, it loses out on value due to the fact that Critical Strike is not a worthwhile pursuit for our build. Defensively, however, it cannot be beaten for certain environments. Loreweave is only recommended as a chest swap if you are already extremely wealthy and can afford both.

Helmet

This is a very flexible slot, and can be easily flexed for whatever your build needs at the moment. Our recommended Storm Brand enchant is Storm Brand has a 18% chance to Chain an additional time, as we are already supplementing our single target damage with Lightning Spire Trap, which is what the other enchants aim to bolster. With extremely potent gear, this enchant is even comparable or superior on single target as well. This optimization is a small one, however, and any enchant will work.

It is possible to craft a helmet with fossils that has -% Lightning Resistance to nearby enemies. This is done using the Metallic Fossil, and then reforging using resonators. While this affix is quite potent, it is not necessary to begin end-game mapping and can be saved for a later upgrade. We crafted this helm ourselves for only a few chaos.

1. Trap and Mine Damage2. Life3. [Uncapped] Resistances4. Strength/Dexterity (if needed)5. Faster Casting A Shaped pair of gloves supported by Trap and Mine Damage and Faster Casting is the best possible upgrade, however, it should not come at the expense of all your defensive rolls if leveling and/or survival is a concern.

Boots

Boots should be used to fill in Resistances and Life. Be sure you have a strong Movement Speed roll, as it is one of the most essential stats to boosting your clear speed. A luxury option is a Shaped pair of boots supported by Decoy Totem. A Multiple Totems Support gem will be necessary within the link, however, as the Runebinder keystone applies -1 to maximum number of summoned totems.

Weapons and Shield

Main Hand/Weapon

It is best to use a Rare sceptre in the main hand, as it allows you to use Shield Charge. Sine we are not a Critical Srtike based build, Dagger implicits are not as valuable to us as they potentially could be. The Sambar Sceptre base is the best available option for jack-of-all-trades purposes, although the Void Sceptre base is a fine alternative.

Shield

Magna Eclipsis is an excellent option that combines offense and defense. The Elemental Aegis provides a fair amount of defense against “rogue wave” style one-shots, provided they are elemental damage. It feels especially good in Betrayal, with many of the current Syndicate members dealing massive amounts of burst elemental damage. The +2 gems is also a great combination with our Brand Recall, as it benefits quite noticeably from each increased level.

A Rare shield with the following stat prioritization is also a fine choice:

[Uncapped] Resistances

Spell Damage

Life

Lightning Damage

Mana

Mana Regeneration Rate

Cast Speed

Invictus Solaris and Vix Lunaris are totally fine alternatives, and provide status immunity, which can be nice for some players. They are generally more cheaply obtained, which is a nice bonus.

FAQ

Can I Level with Storm Brand?

Yes, absolutely. Storm Brand feels quite comfortable while leveling, even if it is not the absolute best leveling skill out there. As long as you have a second link for Lightning Spire Trap, you should have little trouble with any bosses all the way until mapping.

How is This Build in Delves?

This build delves quite comfortably, although the maximum depth is quite variable based on gear. So far, the deepest we have experienced is around depth 600.

About the Author

Furty has been playing Path of Exile since the release of the Onslaught League in 2013, and has a deep and diverse well of experience within the game. Equally comfortable playing on Hardcore, Softcore, and Solo-Self Found Leagues, Furty finished the Betrayal League at Rank 186 on the ladder playing Elemental Hit. You can follow him on Twitter, or check out his occasional streams on Twitch.